Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Commission recommended that the respondent be reprimanded. The Board of Governors of
the IBP adopted and approved its Commissions recommendation.
ISSUE: Is respondent guilty of professional misconduct?
HELD: YES. Rule 1.01 of the Code of Professional Responsibility provides that a lawyer shall
not engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful conduct.
It is glaringly clear that respondent’s non-remittance for over one year of the funds coming from
Encarnacion Pascual constitutes conduct in gross violation of the above canon. The belated
payment of the same to the SSS does not excuse his misconduct. While Pascual may not strictly
be considered a client of respondent, the rules relating to a lawyer’s handling of funds of a client
is applicable. In Daroy v. Legaspi, the court held that the relation between an attorney and his
client is highly fiduciary in nature; thus, lawyers are bound to promptly account for money or
property received by them on behalf of their clients and failure to do so constitutes professional
misconduct. The failure of respondent to immediately remit the amount to the SSS gives rise to
the presumption that he has misappropriated it for his own use. This is a gross violation of general
morality as well as professional ethics; it impairs public confidence in the legal profession and
deserves punishment.
Respondents claim that he may not be held liable because he did not act as a private lawyer but as
a prosecutor is unavailing. Canon 6 of the Code of Professional Responsibility provides: These
canons shall apply to lawyers in government service in the discharge of their official tasks.
A lawyer does not shed his professional obligations upon assuming public office. In fact, his public
office should make him more sensitive to his professional obligations because a lawyer’s
disreputable conduct is more likely to be magnified in the public’s eye.
The Court REPRIMANDS respondent with a STERN WARNING that a commission of the similar
offense will be dealt with more severely in the future.